Archive for the ‘Philosophical’ Category

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Choosing between Profits or People

Sunday, February 11th, 2007

In the speech Bill Moyers gave recently entitled Life on the Plantation, he quoted Teddy Roosevelt from 100 years ago. Roosevelt was talking then about the collision between those who think our societies should be about maximizing profit for their personal gain and those who think that they should be about the people who comprise them. Roosevelt said, “Our democracy is now put to a vital test, for the conflict is between human rights on the one side and on the other special privilege asserted as a property right. The parting of the ways has come“.

Now, in Moyers’ speech he was decrying the increasing subjugation of the news media to big business and the damage this does to democratic institutions. But, this is not a new phenomenon. Here as quote from 1880 in which a journalist of that day was complaining about the interference of big money in how the news is reported, “The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth… We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes“, by John Swinton from speech given while working for the New York Sun. (Thx for this quote goes to Kevin at www.cryptogon.com.)

In the February 11th, 2007 edition of the New York Times appeared an article entitled, “Troubles Grow for a University Built on Profits“. The article discusses how the University of Phoenix has been great at generating profits but its reputation for academic excellence is fading. Consider also how not too many years ago, corporate America swept up the medical world and now most of the doctors and hospitals around are part and parcel of corporate entities which we refer to as the Healthcare Industry. Most people, and physicians as well, would tell you today that the quality of medical care has suffered as a result.

All of these themes; the subversion of the news, the dumbing down of education and the profitization of medicine are all aspects of the same thing. And that single thing is the dividing of the ways Roosevelt mentioned; the battle between those who think the rest of us were born to be pawns in their games of profit and those of us who think that this world should be about maximizing the quality of life for all of us. And these are just three examples. Look around – examples abound.

Corporations are, in many cases, becoming stronger than national governments. It is important to realize that a corporation is a for profit entity without a heart. Regardless of what its PR may say, when push comes to shove, profit is what really matters. Corporations and industries cannot help but see countries, their resources and their peoples as pieces on the chessboard. And they will move and manipulate them in which ever way maximizes their profits.

Some national governments have implemented a mix of Socialism and Capitalism in which Socialism has the upper hand but it only uses its ability to trump and limit Capitalism when Capitalism’s drive for profit begins to degrade and imbalance the society.

Other countries, and the US is a good example, let Capitalism run largely uncontrolled. Yes, at some points in the past when the imbalance got badly out of control and corporations were threatening to gain control of everything through monopolies, the federal government broke industries up. Think about the railroad barons of the 19th century and of Standard Oil and AT&T. But in the US, the trump card is rarely played other than to guarantee that the government retains dominance over the corporations. It is not generally played to improve the lot of the people.

Now, the sad part is that Capitalism, as the US practices it, puts a Capitalistic entity on the world stage that is extremely competitive and very much like a junkyard dog. Whereas, the Capitalistic dogs loosed by those countries who keep their Capitalism subservient to their Socialistic goals, are less competitive and less vicious – more like pets.

What is sad is that nine times out of 10, when the junkyard Capitalistic dog meets the mellower pets of the more Socialistic countries, it dominates them and wealth and power flow from their systems to its system and raw Capitalism thereby advances in its subversion of the idea that societies should be for their peoples. And it advances its philosophy that societies should be considered as sandboxes in which corporations get to play for profits.

It is a classic weakest-link-in-the-chain problem. So long as one country allows its corporate dogs to run loose unmuzzeled, they will terrorize and weaken those other countries who’ve chosen to spend their resources on improving the lot of their people rather than trying to dominate the world. Unless all the countries get together and agree to limit the power of corporations for the good of humanity together, those societies dedicated to the quality of life of their people will always potentially be at the mercy of those who’ve already been captured by the siren songs of wealth promised by unfettered Capitalism.

Posted in Capitalism & Corporations, Philosophical | No Comments »

061208 – Friday – Historical inevitability

Thursday, December 7th, 2006

One of the great blessings of being here in New Zealand for several months is having a lot of time to read, think, correspond and reflect. Recently, I’ve been receiving a lot of input and sometime, over the last few days, I started putting the pieces together into what is, for me, a new pattern.

One influence on me has been two science fiction books I’ve recently finished by Peter Watts. The two books (which are the first two in a series) are Starfish and Maelstrom. These, along with others I’ve read, have envisioned a future in which many of the coming Perfect Storm disasters I’ve been writing about have come to pass and are just a part of people’s day-to-day lives.

Over this same period, one of my correspondents also wrote and reminded me about how adaptable people are. Put them in a prison camp or an arctic wasteland and those who survive the initial shock will adapt and soon it will seem to them as if life had always been this way.

Thinking about these things, it also came to me how we all grow up assuming that the conditions that existed as we personally emerged into our childhoods – aways existed.

One piece I’ve been meaning to write now for some time has to do with the tension between those who want things to stay the same and those who like and embrace change. For the most part, I’ve always identified with those who embrace change and tolerance and I’ve laughed at people who’ve made statements like, “Rock and Roll music will ruin our youth“, “Long Hair is a sign of social decadence“, or “Too much social tolerance towards alternative lifestyles leads to the breakdown of family values“. I’ve seen that these things seldom come to pass as the doom-sayers predict and I’ve believed that most of their resistance has been driven by their fear of change and the uncertainty it brings.

So, this brings me around full-circle to my own railing against the coming Perfect Storm. And here, I find myself on the side of those resisting change.

Within the last day or so, one of my correspondents asked me who I am writing for and what I hope to accomplish with my writing and why I’m not offering my readers more specific recommendations about what people can do to defuse the coming problems rather than just pointing out the problems over and over.

Thinking about his questions gave me deep pause.

I realized that emotionally, I deeply hate (see Eden Lost) and resist what the coming Perfect Storm will do to the world I was born in and have come to love so deeply.

But I also realized that I’m not offering specific recommendations about what people can do to resist the changes because I don’t believe there’s any point. The truth is the changes are coming and I think, given human nature and the Biological Imperatives that underlie it, there’s very little we can do to avoid the bullet.

So, as I’ve worked through these new thoughts, the various pieces and their relationships have come into focus.

I see that I’ve spent several years emotionally railing against the coming changes. The thought that has come to me, agonizingly, again and again has been that if we can understand these coming problems, we can do something about them. I’ve looked at this Eden of ours and reflected on how one-of-a-kind it is in all of existence and how it is the intricate and delicate product of three and half billion years of natural selection. It is the nursery from which our species has been birthed; perfectly and naturally matched to us. It is inconceivable to me that we should cast it away through inattention.

But, at the same time, I’ve been working to understand why we are doing the things we are doing which are carrying the world to great change and ruin. And, as my understandings have deepened, the logical and pragmatic side of me has been realizing and accepting that these problems arise from so deep within the core of what we are as evolved biological beings, that it is extremely unlikely that we will find the self-understanding and will to transcend their directives. (see Transcending our Biological Imperatives)

I am resisting change, but change will come – as it always does. I am mourning the world I was born into that I love, but as the world changes and new generations are born into it, they will each imprint on the world as they find it and what seems so very wrong to me will seem normal to them.

I, for instance, know there was a time when New Zealand was untouched by human hands and species walked here that haven’t been seen in many hundreds of years since the first Maori peoples arrived and drove them to extinction. And I also know, as I look around, that these trees and plants I see which are part of the beauty of this place are mostly not the ones that existed then. I know there was a New Zealand before men but it is an intellectual knowing. I can be curious about what it was like and I can mourn it in a muted fashion and I can regret how my species has changed the world unknowingly in so many ways. But, in the end, it wasn’t my world and I love this world before me now – even though I know that it was different then.

So it will be I think, three or four generations from now, when the world will be largely unrecognizable to us – if we were still there. But the people of that future time will love it because they will be born to it.

The sea coasts rearranged, the missing ice caps, the vast deserts, the shells of lowland cities long dead from inundation, the stories of the millions or even billions that died during the big changes,will be to them no different than it is for us hearing from historians about Napoleon at Waterloo or the carnage of WWI; just fascinating stories of what went before our now.

“So, where to now, traveler?”, I ask myself. Why do I write and what do I want to say, if these are my understandings?

I see my emotions are just resistance to the inevitable changes. I can let that go – though with great sadness because something in me had always hoped that we might change things and prevent the coming chaos.

I see that my ideas about getting out of harm’s way are still valid – at least for now. In 20 or 30 years, it will have all changed again. But, for now, while the changes are still building up, there are some places that are better than others to watch the evolving show from and New Zealand seems to me to be one of them.

I watched a bus load of Chinese tourists the other day. They had just piled out of the bus beside Hagley Park. On one side, 800 acres of pristine park stretched away as far as one could see. And, on the other side of the street behind them, clean and neat homes and apartments – bright with flowers, prosperity and loving attention. On the sidewalks and in the park, young men and women were running together for exercise and above it all, a vast blue sky, clean and clear, with white clouds slowly moving through it. Everything very near to the way one would think the world should be.

Did they come from Shanghai with its millions crawling like ants beneath an impenetrable industrial sky? From down in the deep shadows beneath the skyscrapers clawing through the grit and smoke. A land where everyone wants a new car and they all go out and sit in them for hours hoping the traffic will move so they can go someplace. A dog eat dog fight to get more and rise above the chaos that swells on all sides. People in your face at every turn – a horror of too much too soon, too fast and too artificial.

And here, out in the vast great southern ocean, they see a beautiful green land free of pollution, prosperous and clean with only four million people to share and enjoy all of its bounty and beautiful open spaces. Were some of them who came to see this quaint little place looking stunned – at paradise?

I wonder if I should even write of these things? To say to those few here and there in the world who are beginning to see the way things are going – that there still is a place like this. One of the few and perhaps the last. A place where everything is very near to the way one would think the world should be. Should I be putting up a sign on the Internet saying, “Over here!”

The other day at the Christchurch Library, I put a hold on Jared Diamond’s book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Yesterday, I received an E-mail saying that they had it and it was ready for me to pick up. Today, I was at the library returning Watts’ second book, Maelstrom, and when I was ready to leave, I thought of stopping by the counter and picking up the Diamond book – but for the life of me, I couldn’t think of any reason why I wanted to read it.

Doctor, my eyes have seen the years
And the slow parade of fears without crying
Now I want to understand
I have done all that I could
To see the evil and the good without hiding
You must help me if you can
Doctor, my eyes
Tell me what is wrong
Was I unwise to leave them open for so long
‘Cause I have wandered through this world
And as each moment has unfurled
I’ve been waiting to awaken from these dreams
People go just where there will
I never noticed them until I got this feeling
That it’s later than it seems
Doctor, my eyes
Tell me what you see
I hear their cries
Just say if it’s too late for me
Doctor, my eyes
Cannot see the sky
Is this the prize for having learned how not to cry

– Jackson Browne, “Doctor My Eyes”

Posted in Personal, Philosophical | 1 Comment »

An arms race of ideas

Tuesday, September 12th, 2006

It will always essentially be an arms race between the Liberals and the Conservatives. And there will always be move and counter-move. Perhaps the central thing that distinguishes these two philosophies is that one, the Conservative, is more naturally described as an extension of our deep biological imperatives (those deep-seated and unconscious biological urges to reproduce and to control the environmental surround to better ensure the survival of one’s progeny) whereas the Liberal POV can be more naturally described as an semi-conscious attempt to transcend those same imperatives.

A transcendence driven by the vague recognition that while our biological imperatives have served as an optimal strategy for us and all other biological forms since life first began on this planet, the time has finally arrived, now that human expansion has finally hit the limits of this finite planet, to recognize that these imperatives have within them an implicit assumption of infinite space and resources which is fundamentally unsupportable.

This simple dichotomy is the core issue underlying the problems our species faces now. Will we continue to act out our biological imperatives blindly and wreak havoc on this beautiful blue planet? Or will we rise to the challenge of consciously recognizing that we must transcend our biological urges so that we may adopt a strategy that allows us to achieve a steady-state balance with the biosphere and live within its limitations indefinitely?

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Eroding judgements

Saturday, August 12th, 2006
…the fundamentalist mind, running in a single rut for fifty years, is now quite unable to comprehend dissent from its basic superstitions, or to grant any common honesty, or even any decency, to those who reject them.
HL Mencken

Neurons that fire together, wire together was a line I remember from the movie I saw recently.

In other words, you become good at thinking what you think. You become good at doing what you do.

The first time you think something, it is as if you roll a wheel across level ground.

The twentith time you think it, it has gotten easier. As if a rut has been worn into the ground of perception guiding the wheel on its way.

If we care about truth, then we naturally want to percieve reality accurately. Because accurate perception is true perception. Thus the Buddhists tell us that we cannot see a thing clearly unless we are indifferent to the thing we see.

So, what happens then when we take up a cause or adopt a belief?

Before we took the cause or belief up, we were indifferent to it. And at the moment we took it up, our previous indifference allowed still us to see it clearly and accurately – and thus to make a good judgement about it.

But later, having embraced it, we become deeply engaged with it.

Now it begins to be central to us and the more we work with it, the more important it seems.

What  once seemed perhaps a bit difficult to grasp has been revealed and we see it all so easily now.

An example:

If we think the thoughts of an environmentalist, we then fire the neurons of environmentalist thought over and over again.

And as we fire them, we wire them together.

And what was before, for us, a level field of perception about environmentalism now begins to acquire the ruts of long use; the growing ease of habit. And thus, inevitably, our current thoughts become, more and more,  guided by the ruts of the environmentalist thoughts that went before and less and less based on clear, unbiased and accurate perceptions.

So where once, from the clarity of indifference, we saw a significant pattern called environmentalism and decided to engage it, now from the habit of long practice and interaction (the repetative firing and wiring), we now can’t help but see the pattern everywhere. And the more we see it, the more significant it seems to be to us and the more we feel called to engage it.

Where then lies truth when our very neurons can betray us like this?

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Healing Crisis

Thursday, July 20th, 2006

This is an excellent piece of writing from Steven Lagavulin’s Blog, Deconsumption.

The world is quickly ramping-up toward a full awareness of the various fundamental crises affecting our way of life (peak oil, economic collapse, religious/resource wars and strife, climate shift), and on the coat-tails of that might even come the larger awareness that our problems actually extend beyond mere individual “issues”–that in fact it is our entire culture which has teetered beyond the tipping-point of sustainable progress. So whether we’re ready for it or not, the veil of illusion about our way of life is about to be ripped away for a great many people, regardless of whether they’re immediately affected by these issues or not. But as many readers of this site are doubtless already aware, that experience of disillusionment, in and of itself, can be extremely distressing.

Yet for some reason those of us who might be considered analysts of the impending collapse rarely speak directly about this initial period of “culture shock”–although it’s a shock most of us have personally had to struggle through. And I think it’s crucial that we do talk about it, since how (and whether) we cope with this anxiety determines how (and whether) we will be able to embrace the life-changes that are being demanded of us.

In this respect I thought I’d offer my own thoughts on the subject, and if other readers choose to share their experiences as well then we’ll have preserved on the internet at least one little reference–maybe a kind of virtual support-group–for those who are suffering from culture-change anxiety.

More… ➡

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Personal Philosophy

Friday, July 14th, 2006

Personal philosophy

I consider myself a spiritualist but my views have been simplifying over the years. I believe (not know) that there is a reason and purpose to existence but having said that, I doubt that entities such as we can understand it anymore than a dog can work out what a pile of encyclopedias are for. Reading scriptures and wondering which religion has a better handle on understanding spiritual matters has become passé for me. The nearest thing I can see to purpose is that matter spontaneously organizes itself via complexity into ever more intricate assemblages as it turns energy into organization. Eventually, these complex forms reach sentience and know that they exist and can see some of how they came to be though not for what purpose (which is where we are now as a species – somewhere mid-way along a continuum that we can only guess where it might go).

I consider this ability of matter to work itself into ever more complex forms in areas of excess energy (and thus against the general flow of entropy) to be part of what Spirit is up to as it raises matter to self awareness. So, in my personal life, anything I do that furthers this trend and preserves complexity (life) on earth from being torn down, I consider this to be ‘aligning myself with Spirit’ and thus right activity, right livelihood in the Buddhist sense.

I have another belief (and again, not a knowing) and that that this existence is configured in such a way that whatsoever we believe about it, that is how it will appear to work for us, subjectively. Thus the atheist sees a world where everything just is, because he believes it is so. And another man, if his beliefs so incline him, will see the hand of God behind every leave that falls.

Personally, I believe my life will be best lived if I align my purpose with my best understanding of what Spirit’s purpose is (I.e. evolution, growing complexity, increasing intelligence and awareness). And, to me, subjectively, my life does seem blessed and I believe this feeling of being blessed runs far deeper than the logic of self-fulfilling prophecies can explain.

So, as time passes, my belief that I can explain things rationally fades and comes down to a simple a-priori belief that existence has purpose and meaning and that life and complexity have something to do with it. On the other hand, my subjective feeling of being ‘connected’ to this purpose grows even as my ability to explain or understand it fades.

Everyday, when I roll out of bed and stand up, I stand in the darkness for a few moments and thank The Blessed One (my name for Spirit), for this body, this health, this intelligence, this wife, this life and these opportunities to experience and grow and participate. And each evening when we meditate, I remind myself what I think is deeply and perennially important as opposed to all of the trivia that fills us and distracts us from moment to moment, day to day.

I can’t explain it or defend it, but for me it gets stronger year by year and it doesn’t matter if is just my own little subjective world. I don’t believe in the function of priests – I think each of us is free to work out what their life is by what we conscious choose to believe about Spirit, life, purpose and meaning. And, if we are judged, then it can only be by how near or far from our beliefs our actions lie.

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What do we really know?

Monday, July 3rd, 2006

There are people who believe that we are close to having a grip on knowing how everything works. I’m not one of them, though I admit the idea is attractive to my rationalist side.

I think I heard the death bells knelling for this idea when I read that the universe is currently thought to be composed of:

74% Dark Energy
22% Dark Matter

and

4% is the stuff we know about, like matter & normal energy

No too many years ago, before astronomers discovered that the universe is expanding and accelerating rather than expanding and slowing, they used to think that they almost had everything tallied. And then 96% of everything got away from them. It shook my confidence, I’ll tell you.

More… ➡

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excerpt from a letter…

Saturday, June 24th, 2006

This was extracted from a long personal E-mail thread between myself and some friends on the subject of Climate Change and what we can do about it.

> What more do you want from people who will hear the message,
> many of them for the first time?

I guess what I want and hope for is that those with the intelligence to see and understand the problem and to realize it is by far the most serious problem facing us, will ‘speak their truth’ at any good opportunity rather than quietly adopting a fatalistic, “Oh well, I can’t really do anything about it attitude.”

I don’t mean that we should change careers, sell our cars, wear hair shirts and pound our chests behind a card table in front of Safeway.

More… ➡

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Places to Intervene in a System

Saturday, June 24th, 2006

“Places to Intervene in a System” is the name of a paper written in 1999 by Donella Meadows of the Sustainability Institute.

Maybe it’s because I was a computer programmer/systems analyst for 25 years, but this is one of the best things I’ve read. When I read it, it was like watching someone pick up a tool you’d used many times and then suddenly seeing them do incredible virtuosa things with it. The clarity of her thought processes is amazing, to say the least.

Systems are everywhere around us. It’s probably not too strong to say that they comprise everything significant in this physical world. Once you’ve read Donella, you’ll probably realize, as I did, how poorly we understand how to intereact with these essential components of our world. And, you may see as well how that bears on the terrible mess humanity is geting itself into vis-a-vis the environment at this point in history.

Read and enjoy: ➡ (this requires a PDF reader)

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